Using Progress Notes: Examples

A Progress Note is a document which may be added to a Purchase Order or Goods Received Note to record details about the progress of an order or order line.

Note: For further details see Progress Notes.

Why Might You Wish To Add A Progress Note?

Progress Notes enable you to record the detail of contact between your own company and the Suppliers and additional shipping/haulage companies involved in the progress of a Purchase Order - and its related Goods Received Note. This contact might be in the form of a telephone call, a one-to-one conversation, email, letter, or fax.

To add a Progress Note see Adding Progress Notes.

A Progress Note can record contact initiated by:

• you: e.g. you telephone the Supplier/shipping company about an order: "Will it be delivered/shipped on time?"; and/or:

• the Supplier/shipping company: e.g. they telephone you about an order: "The order will be delivered/shipped in full on the agreed date."

At various stages during the order's progress you might have contact with the Supplier/shipping company to ask questions and offer/give information about the order's delivery and shipping. On each occasion, the detail can be recorded in a Progress Note.

When this detail has been recorded, you may view the Progress Note to see the details to check how the order is progressing, whether there are any delays, what has caused them, and who is responsible. Other users may also view this detail; for example, a member of the sales team, who has orders waiting, might view Progress Notes for a Purchase Order to see what is happening with the order.

Note: Progress Notes may be used alongside the date fields on Purchase Order headers and lines to record Supplier performance. See Purchase Order Date Fields And Supplier Performance.

What Details Would It Be Useful To Record In A Progress Note?

There are potentially unlimited examples of the type of detail you might wish to record in a Progress Note. Here are some potential uses:

• You ring the Supplier on the day of placing the order to check they can meet their usual lead time, recording the details of the conversation. For example, you might record the answer to questions like: "How long will it take for parts to be manufactured?" and: "Will parts be manufactured by the expected date or is there likely to be a delay - and if so, how long?"

• The Supplier calls you after an order has been placed to say: "We can fulfil your order for Products X and Y but can no longer supply Z - do you still wish to proceed?" This can be recorded in a Progress Note before a response is prepared.

• You email the shipping company a day before the agreed shipping date to check shipping will take place on time, entering the text of your email and any response in a Progress Note; e.g. "Shipping has been delayed because of a dock strike/bad weather".

• You ring the Supplier a day before the agreed delivery date to ensure delivery will be on time, again recording conversation details in a Progress Note; e.g. "Everything will be delivered on time" or "We have had a problem with our hauliers - delivery will be a day later than expected".

• The Supplier rings to say: "We can deliver Products X and Y on the agreed date, but cannot deliver Product Z for a further week. Do you want us to deliver Products X and Y only, or deliver everything together a week later?" Details of this interaction - including your response - can be recorded in a Progress Note.

• After an order has been delivered, you discover that certain goods were damaged in transit. To discover who was responsible you might then contact the Supplier/shipping company/haulier and record the response in a Progress Note.

Following Up On Progress Notes

A Progress Note can be used to initiate a follow-on Task, which can be assigned to a User. For example: the Supplier rings to tell you the order will be delayed by a week. You record this information in a Progress Note. You have already taken Sales Orders waiting for delivery which are based on first receiving the Purchase Ordered goods. In response, Tasks might therefore be assigned to a relevant User to:

• contact an alternative Supplier to see if the goods can be obtained more quickly; and/or:

• contact Customers to tell them their order will be delayed; and/or:

• contact the Supplier a day before the new agreed delivery date to check they can still fulfil the order on time.

For further details see Creating Tasks.

Progress Notes can also provide useful detail after an order has been completed. They enable you to:

• Record details relating to Suppliers and additional shipping/haulage companies: Did they meet - or exceed - their requirements in terms of time, product and service? Is a certain company consistently late? Did they let you down in other ways?

• Make notes relating to how long each section of the supply chain has taken.

These details may be useful when planning future orders.

When a Progress Note is created, the User is required to enter a reason for raising the Progress Note (via the Reason menu; which must be populated with appropriate menu options using the POPR table file. For example: order late; order on time; order being shipped from manufacturer; shipping delayed.) Selected 'reasons' can be compared for analysis later on using Quantum VS myViewpoint or a similar application.

NEXT: Adding Progress Notes